At seven o'clock, the performance by Bi Sheng's dance troupe began on time.
The performances of Bi Sheng's dance troupe here are not much different from their performances in other places. The first performance usually sells 250 or 260 tickets.
Reputation is important in any business, including street performances. If you gain a good reputation in your first performance, your second performance will naturally be better than the first.
Wherever Bi Sheng's dance troupe goes, they win acclaim after just one performance, and the second performance is almost always sold out.
In rural areas, due to the small population size, they usually only perform once, and then move on to another venue.
Even if the show gets good reviews, the sales figures won't surpass those of the first show, since a three-yuan ticket isn't insignificant for rural people.
A migrant worker who works like a bricklayer all day can only earn ten or eight yuan.
Therefore, once they've seen a show in a rural area, they won't go to see it a second time, except in relatively affluent areas.
After experiencing success performing in several county-level cities, they significantly increased the number of performances in urban areas.
In 1993, there were practically no variety shows on television, and even arts and culture programs were only shown once a week, lasting just over an hour. Cultural life was relatively scarce, which provided an opportunity for amateur troupes like Bi Sheng's Song and Dance Troupe to survive.
As the largest city in southern Liaoning, Lianwan City naturally deserves to have the Bi Sheng Song and Dance Troupe perform several shows since they've come here.
The first performance in Wanzhou District was a resounding success, with almost all the audience members captivated by the passionate singing and dancing of the Bi Sheng Song and Dance Troupe.
Zheng Tuo was also moved, especially by the song "Blue Lotus" sung by the young man who gave him the flyer.
But once he got home, the excitement he had just felt from the performance instantly turned cold.
The first performance of Bi Sheng's dance troupe earned a moderate income, but the second performance was a huge success.
All three hundred tickets were sold out in one go.
On the third day, Bi Sheng went out to contact the cinemas on his own initiative.
Even a fool would know how to make four or five thousand yuan a performance in a movie theater.
Bi Sheng was incredibly lucky today; he managed to rent an afternoon session and an evening session for 4,500 yuan per session.
This is because there haven't been any big movies showing in theaters lately. Without big movies, no one buys tickets, and even evening screenings aren't selling many tickets.
Bi Sheng rented the venue for the evening session on Friday, July 23rd, and the daytime session on Saturday, July 24th.
Bi Sheng offered 4,500 yuan to the Wanzhou District Cinema without hesitation.
During this period, Bi Sheng also learned a lot from Liang Liang. For example, he signed very detailed contracts for renting cinemas, for fear of being taken advantage of.
Today is only the 19th, and there are still four days until the performance at the cinema.
At noon on the 20th, Liang Liang finished lunch and was about to rest in the greenhouse for a while when his pager went off.
Besides the members of the song and dance troupe, only Qin Wenju and Liang Hongyu know the number on his pager.
Liang Liang glanced at the pager; it was Qin Wenju calling. He went outside the greenhouse, found a card phone, and used the card to call Qin Wenju back.
Actually, it wasn't anything serious. Qin Wenju hadn't seen Liang Liang for over two months and just wanted to say a few words to him.
They talked for fifteen minutes, arguing about trivial things, until Liang Liang's phone card ran out of credit.
Liang Liang put down the phone and realized that the phone booth was right in front of the Meiyun Dance Hall, just as she saw Zheng Tuo returning from outside.
Zheng Tuo came out to buy cigarettes and instant noodles.
Liang Liang recognized Zheng Tuo at a glance, after all, the name of his dance hall had left a deep impression on him.
"Brother! You're the owner of this nightclub?"
Zheng Tuo didn't recognize Liang Liang, but she looked somewhat familiar.
"Hmm! Who are you?"
"I sent you a flyer a couple of days ago, it's under that tree across the street."
"Ah! It's you, young man. You sing well, and you play the piano well too."
Liang Liang was a little surprised: "Brother, you've seen our performance?"
"It was the night you handed me the flyer that I went to watch it since I had nothing else to do. Your performance was quite wonderful."
"Thank you for the compliment, brother. Thank you for your patronage. But brother, your dance hall looks like it's not doing well. Why don't you even bother to clean up the signboard? Look at the name of your dance hall, 'Every Luck'! Anyone who hears that name is bound to have bad luck or no luck. How can it be good?"
Zheng Tuo gave a bitter smile: "This dance hall has been closed for more than half a month. It's no longer in business. What's the point of caring about the brand?"
"Oh! You're not running it anymore? This location is great. It's right on a commercial street, with a motor vehicle trading market on the left, several businesses across the park, and the residential area for those businesses on the right. Plus, it seems like you're the only nightclub in this area. You shouldn't be doing badly!"
"Sigh, don't even mention it, young man, want a cigarette?"
Zheng Tuo took out a "Five Golden Flowers" cigarette from the newly bought cigarette box.
"I don't smoke, thank you! Then, could you take me inside your nightclub? If it's inconvenient, that's fine too."
"What's inconvenient about it? I live here all by myself now, come on in!"
Liang Liang followed Zheng Tuo into his Meiyun Dance Hall.
There is a corridor as soon as you enter. Follow the corridor to the end and turn left to enter the main hall of the dance hall.
The dance hall was quite large; Liang Liang estimated it to be around 500 to 600 square meters.
The bar and liquor cabinet were intact, but the sofas and small tables in the dance floor were covered in dust, without even a mouse footprint. Zheng Tuo himself hadn't been to the hall for a long time.
"Brother, is this your own home?"
"It's rented! The annual rent is 20,000 yuan, and the lease expires in four months."
"So you're just wasting your rent by living here?"
"Not entirely. I'm thinking of selling it off in the next few months. I've invested over 100,000 yuan in this dance troupe, including rent and other investments. If I can sell it off, I can recoup some of it."
That makes a lot of sense; this is called cutting your losses.
"May I take a look at your jukebox?"
There were some record players in the dance hall, but they were the old-fashioned kind.
"Sure! Look around as much as you like!"
These old-fashioned jukeboxes are rather cumbersome to operate and require a dedicated person to run them.
There was a projector on the wall, and speakers in the four corners, all covered in dust.
The investment in this set of equipment at the time should have been around 40,000 to 50,000 yuan.
Liang Liang fiddled with the troupe's sound equipment for a while.
"Big brother, do you want to make this dance hall a success?"
Zheng Tuo sighed deeply: "Get it done? How easy is that? Do I not want to get it done? But I really can't get it done anymore."
Liang Liang nodded, and just as he was about to say something, his pager went off again.
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